The Yogi Bear Question Page

This page has nothing to do with the cartoon character! That is a name which developed with the students trying the questions years ago.
It has no bearing on the questions but the name just stuck!

This page is for puzzles, riddles, brain teasers conundrums and other similarities. Any contributions gratefully accepted!

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Read this puzzle to a friend...

You are the driver of a school bus.

The bus leaves the depot empty and at the first stop you pick up 5 students.
At the second stop you pick up 3 more students.
At the next stop you pick up 9 more.
At the next stop you pick up 5 and drop off 2
At the next stop you pick up 1 and drop off 7
At the next stop you drop off 3.

Question - how many stops have you made since leaving the depot…?

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There are two clocks. One of them has stopped completely. The second one is working but is one minute slow.

Which one is most correct? 

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A wizard is imprisoned in an hermetically sealed tower. (Curiously, for the purpose of this puzzle, there isn't even an air hole, but as this is a magical tower, we can be assured he won't suffocate…)

He is drawing a bath for himself in the bathroom on the bottom floor of the tower, when the tap breaks and he is unable to turn off the water.  There are no doors or windows, and as the tower is sealed he knows that the tower will fill with water and he will be drowned.
A spell on the castle prevents him using his (considerable) magic powers to save himself. 

How does he escape death?

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There are two balls rolling around on the floor of a room.
One is very large and heavy, the other is a small ping pong ball. If the big one can hit the small one, the small one will be crushed. There are no doors.

How does the small one escape being crushed?

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A man is walking down a street and as he passes a house he hears a voice cry out, "No, don't do it John!!" followed by a gun shot.
Fearing the worst he rushes into the house and finds a body on the floor and a gun lying nearby.

In the same room are a lawyer, an army general, a milkman and a truck driver.
All of them look shocked at the body on the floor.
The man calls the police and when the detective from the Homicide division arrives, he asks what happened. The man explains the same facts you have just heard and without asking ANY questions the detective immediately arrests the milkman and charges him with murder.

Now he is absolutely correct to do so, but how did he know?

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A traveller came across a bridge over a deep chasm. Beside the bridge is a sign that says the bridge will collapse if more than 100kg is on the bridge. The man is relieved as he only weighs 98kg. 

HOWEVER (there is always an 'however' in these things, isn't there? It'd be a bit boring otherwise...) So… HOWEVER… he is carrying three golden balls, each weighing 1 kg - giving him a total of 101kg - too much for the bridge.

He does cross, however and does so safely. How does he do this?

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A boat is moored in a harbour. There is a rope ladder hanging over the side.
There is a 30cm gap between each of the rungs and the rungs are 5cm in diameter.

At low tide, the water is just touching the bottom rung on the ladder.
If the tide rises at 35cm in one hour, how long will it take for the sea water to touch the fourth rung?

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Goldilocks and the three bears.
Everyone knows this fairy tale, but few people know what the bears did on that day!

As you know, there was a Mummy Bear, a Daddy Bear and a Baby Bear. They went for a walk while their breakfast was cooling.

The date this all happened was 29 February (it was a leap year - so no tricks there!)
They left home in the warm summer morning at 8:00am and travelled 1km south through the forest.
Then they travelled 1 km East, before travelling south again for another kilometre.
At this point they came to a road.
The time is now 8:45am, there is a slight Westerly wind, and there is not a single cloud in the sky.
After checking things were safe, they all crossed the road and when they reached the other side, Daddy Bear said to Baby Bear, "How many bears crossed the road?"
…and Baby Bear said "Four."

How did he arrive at this answer?

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If you have any questions / puzzles, including visual puzzles,
that you would like me to consider for inclusion online,
please email them, with answer and reasoning, to: